I've had only a few lucid dreams in my life and so cannot profess to know a great deal about this subject; please bear with me!

About ten years ago I experienced a dream in which I was cycling at night time along a familiar road. I made a left turn and was confronted by absolute blackness. I became concious within the dream at this point and hastily retreated away from the dark. As I did so I passed a lady, startling her in the process. "You scared me" she exclaimed in an American (I think) accent. I turned to face her and felt an extraordinary feeling of knowing this person. I replied to her "I know you, don't I?". What happened next has baffled me ever since. I awoke with an electric shock that started in my feet and slowly rose through my entire body the way sand fills one half of an hourglass. It was painful enough to make me physically sick.

I can't fully explain why but I am certain the electric shock was connected to the dream and indeed to the person in the dream. I can discount faulty electrics as there was no power in the room. I am in my early thirties now and have always been physically healthy so I can't imagine it was a health issue. In fact I visited several doctors but was confronted only with bemused expressions upon relating my story. I do not know any Americans or anyone with a similar accent, and I've not had a repeat of the experience or any lucid dreams since.

If anyone has had any similar experiences or can explain to me what might have happened I would be hugely grateful (ten years of questioning is mentally very taxing!!!).

Its nothing to be concern about, coz i can assure that every human felt an extraordinary experience in a dream in his entire life, when its come to me i experienced a fall from such height in a dream and i felt that pain when i am awake exactly that moment. Sometime the mind make a dream more real than waking life. Remember in th movie Matrix Neo took fall from the building, and after that he says it was real, and Morpheus says mind makes it real ( not about death) . Just like that. Ofcoz I am not an expert but my point of view is like this. I dont know about other guys. Its my experience. Take care. I think you get it.

This is easy to explain.When you woke up you were really having a false awakening.One is normally lucid/conscious during false awakenings and can be easily fooled into thinking one is awake as the dream scape is ones real sleeping area and the dream body ones real body. The electrical current/shock is a dream image inspired by rem atonia/muscle atonia. Put simply you're having a variant of the sleep paralysis dream.

Alternately, and this is very unlikely, you're a diabetic and are having a dream inspired by neuropathy. If you have any body part that's a little numb when awake get yourself tested for diabetes immediately as it is a disease that can cost you life or limb or blind you and does not have a lot of symptoms to tell one one has it.

"There is only one God and his name is Death.And there is only one thing we say to death "not today"- Syrio Forel

I have had sleep paralysis before and this didn't compare at all. I really don't think it was a false awakening; to be physically sick is proof enough for me! That was for sure a manifestation of the real world!